With 9 year old triplets and a 7 year old diva, life is never boring in ChezPerky!

Archive for the ‘IVF#2’ Category

Bloodwork in a week to check my P4 (you know, to make sure I actually DID ovulate. Because with 10,000 units of hCG in my system, you know, I might not. Because this is ME!).

Start Lupron April 1 (April Fool’s, anyone?)

Expect period… oh, around April 6th or 7th.

Probably return for Lupron Evaluation around April 8th.

Er, at least we think.

What doesn’t jive is that SuperDoc had said something about there being three weeks involved somewhere. But my nurse doesn’t have any idea what he’s talking about. So for the moment, she’s going with the theory that I’m starting Lupron April 1 (this part we’re clear on) and then waiting for my period and doing a new LE and getting this show on the road.

Um, except Passover starts the night of April 8th. So… starting stims April 8th? Not the best timing…

Frick.

And now I need a new label… do I call this upcoming cycle IVF#2 again since well, IVF#2 never actually came to fruition? Do I call it IVF#2.5 since it’s not quite exactly the first time I started out trying that cycle? Do I call it IVF#3 which seems disingenuous since I never made it to the IVF part of IVF#2? Help!

My lining, she is not wafer thin – she is 10.1mm and I have a lovely 18.6 follicle. Or maybe it’s a cyst. But it’s probably a beautiful follicle. We’ll see what my estrogen is, but either way, it probably means triggering tonight and starting Lupron again in 9 days.

Dr. C. was covering monitoring today. I told him that the last time I saw him was when he was standing there, mouth agape while M (sonographer extraordinaire) was telling me there were three in there. “Oh my, was I the one who gave you that news?” Yep. Well, no. It was actually M. But yeah. He was the doc that day. And actually, I’ve seen him since, but I think only in passing. We had a lovely little chat and I showed off pictures of my kids.

Well, my E2 level didn’t go up as expected, which probably means those two gorgeous follicles aren’t as gorgeous as they look. Typical for me. Whatever.

My E2 level was 98.3 (down 0.7 from Tuesday, but essentially that means it’s stabilized, not that it’s gone anywhere). My P4 level was 0.75. So I’m not gearing to ovulate any second as SuperDoc had feared, and I get to stay on the Lupron through the weekend and return on Monday (Lucky Me!!). The likelihood is still that I will ultimately end up cancelling this cycle, but I guess we have to give it the old college try, right?

Of course, right.

Anonymous asked if I could try the old fashioned way since I’ve got those two follicles hanging out – there are a couple answers to that question:

1. The first is, the two follicles are both on the left side, which was the tube that was blocked in my last HSG. Assuming that wasn’t a fluke – that would preclude them being useful.2. Assuming the blocked tube WAS a fluke, I’m not doing anything at this point that involves two follicles on purpose. If you think I’m being extreme, that’s fine, but I’m dead serious. I am petrified of ending up with twins – my perinatologist scared the crap out of me in December when I saw him and he made it clear that a twin pregnancy is not an option for me.

Tagging along with that question, Anonymous asked if, in light of this development, whether it would make sense for me to try on my own for the next cycle and see if I ovulate all on my lonesome. A few thoughts:

1. If anovulation alone were my sole problem, sure, maybe. But it’s not.2. If I were uninsured and needed time to pull together money for a cycle, sure. But this cycle is already paid for. My portion of this cycle has already been paid for, it’s just being deferred until whenever we DO get started, so the money has already been set aside. 3. I ovulated every single month from the time my HOMs were 6 weeks old until they were about a year old. Then I started spreading out to about every 6 weeks. I used no birth control. I even did my best to, um, make the best of our… timing. I did not get pregnant in that entire time. 4. If there were something inherently healthier about getting pregnant spontaneously vs. via IVF, then sure, maybe there would be some advantage to waiting another month just to see. But aside from slightly lower birth weights in IVF babies (even singletons), there doesn’t appear to be any inherent health differences in IVF babies vs. spontaneously conceived babies. So why wait? 5. If I *am* ovulating on my own, I can just as easily TTC spontaneously later, after I don’t have insurance covering my cycles, as I can right now. So what’s the difference?6. What SuperDoc implied to me was that it is, oddly enough, the Lupron itself responsible for my response so far. His words were that sometimes in women you get the opposite reaction to the Lupron than what you’re hoping to achieve. Note, I’m not so sure about this one, because, honestly? I sort of started tuning him out right around the time that he started making fun of me for always being opposite girl.

Anywhozit, it’s just more fun for me. A girl’s gotta get her Lupron fix somehow, right?

Yeah, um, hello? Stupid body. Per SuperDoc, “Sometimes on Lupron you get the opposite effect that you’re hoping for… What I was afraid of last time was that you’re ovulating on your own despite the Lupron.” Meanwhile, M (Sonographer Extraordinaire) was frowning. “She’s thickening…” (referring to my endometrium, damn that endometrium!)

Seriously, how does this happen? I can’t manage to ovulate on my own without the ovary-suppressing Lupron. Now I’m using Lupron to beat my perky ovaries into submission and what happens?? Goodness!

So instead of my endometrium staying wafer thin, it has thickened by .4mm. That may not seem like a lot to you, but it’s enough to make my doctor frown and the student that was with him shrugged her shoulders in exasperation also. Oh, and my beaten-into-submission-non-perky-ovaries?

No numbers back on the estrogen level yet, but odds are good that it’s gone up, not down. So the answer is to trigger with the hCG shot and then re-start Lupron 9 days later and then I’ll come back for a re-check 2 weeks later. So we’re looking at about a 3 week delay. Whee!

I have another go at my Lupron Evaluation in the morning. I have a weird feeling that nothing will have changed, though I’m not really sure why I feel that way. Le Sigh. Stupid body. Stupid Lupron. Stay tuned…

Not much to report on the fertility front. My head is pounding AND I have a toothache. This is not making me very happy. I am not thrilled about this development. But the toothache, I’m sure, has nothing to do with my fertility (or lack thereof). Though it might have to do with the fact that I’m constantly clenching my teeth from the throbbing in my head. Sigh.

Still hate Lupron. Shocker.

Received a good response from RESOLVE after I wrote to them asking if they knew anything about the Maryland Personhood Amendment:

There are actually about 13 states that have some level of Personhood legislation in the works. To be honest, we have heard from a number of sources in Maryland that this bill will not go anywhere, however, we really should update our website and let folks know what is going on. We have a very small staff and with so many states taking action on a variety of issues we have had to pick and choose how we spend our time. We have been working on 2 other bills in Maryland that improve the current insurance mandate, as well as other bills in GA and MO that are directly affecting infertility treatment. If we get information that a bill is not going to go anywhere, we know we can put it aside and the outcome will still be favorable. I realize that is not going to please everyone, but all of our advocacy work is done by me and a handful of volunteers scattered around the country (about 3-4 people). I don’t have any designated staff person on advocacy, and I try and do the best I can while running the organization as well. The legislative session can be a very busy time for us – especially this year with so much outrage regarding the Octuplets and now the personhood issue popping up in more states.

Thanks again for contacting RESOLVE. If I find out any further information about this bill I will let you know.—–

That’s my estrogen level. Seriously, when I’m not on Lupron and I have actively growing follicles, I barely have estrogen that high.

Now I have the most boring looking ovaries I’ve ever seen, I’m on 20 units of Lupron a day, and… what? My estrogen is double what it needs to be?

Stupid body.

No Follistim or Luveris tonight. No dropping the Lupron dose in the morning. Status Quo for now. Return for re-check on Friday. Yeah. I can’t believe I failed the Lupron Eval. Man.

Edited to Add: Shit, wait, you don’t think it was the Nectar of the Gods, do you? Seriously, I really only had one a day. Once I had two in one day. But seriously? One 12 ounce can a day can’t have done me in. Could it?

Edited, Again: Yes, it could potentially have been the increase in caffeine level that affected my estrogen level. I will note, however, that I drank probably 4-7 cans of coke per day while doing my six IUIs and never had any affect on my estrogen level. Admittedly, back then I simply had a constant blood level in my caffeine stream. Perhaps I am more sensitive to caffeine now than I was then, since I nearly never drink caffeine anymore (I don’t ever drink coffee or tea and I hadn’t had a coke in months before the last couple weeks). Should I ask my doctor about it? Meh. Possibly, but I’m simply going to cut out the Coke and suffer through the headaches until Friday.

As for whether I need another re-check before Friday – not really. He’s leaving it until Friday to give the Lupron more time to work. The only reason to get a recheck before Friday would be if there were serious concern about over-suppressing me between now and then, and there is not that concern. It’s just a few more days lost on my schedule, is all. But all that means is that my beta isn’t going to fall on Pesach – which it was going to do before – so now at least I won’t have to push that off. Right? See? Silver linings all around.